Main post content

Your street needs you!

Lambeth council’s Street Champions scheme aims to support people who want to improve the physical and social environment where they live.

Street Champions can do a whole range of things to help their community, whether it’s organising street parties, increasing greenery, encouraging others to recycle properly or even just introducing neighbours to foster a greater sense of community.

Will is one of many who have already signed up.

Here’s Will’s story:

Developing community spirit in cities isn’t always easy – particularly cities as huge and densely populated as London. People live busy lives, they move house often, and they like to keep themselves to themselves. In fact, despite being physically so close together, it’s not uncommon to have very little contact with our neighbours at all.

Going door to door to collect responses for an online survey I created recently, I quickly became aware that more neighbourly contact is something that is actually really welcomed by most people. I want to help with that. Just being able to wave hello in the morning to someone you’ve met on the other side of the street is surprisingly gratifying, and it changes the street you live in from a row of houses into a row of people.

Of course every street has its issues, regardless of the area it’s in. Bavent Road has its fair share too: Litter, dumped rubbish, uneven pavements, no trees, and so on. But a problem shared is a problem halved, and I’m adopting a ‘strength in numbers’ approach; I’ve already recruited more Street Champions to help me out to try and get a few things sorted, because I won’t be able to do it alone. I am happy to be the first piece of the jigsaw though.